On Sports Betting: In the Late Summer Swelter, Everyone’s Attention Turns to Football

When it’s a sweltering 112 degrees in Las Vegas, there’s a noticeable dash of humidity in the air and a threat of thunderstorms looming on the horizon, what’s on every sports bettor’s mind?

Football, of course.

We tuned into an afternoon radio program last Monday dedicated to sports betting, and a good portion of the program was dedicated to college football. Meanwhile over at Vegas Insider, you could read all about their Preseason Top 25, best bets in top conferences and season win totals.

Not enough information for you? CBS Sports had a post with the headline “The Real 16 CFP Contenders.”

The first college games are, in fact, weeks away. On Aug. 24, Miami is -7 on the road vs. Florida with the total at 50.5. Later in the day, Arizona is an 11-point favorite as it travels to play Hawaii. The total in that game is 70.

The NFL preseason, formerly known as the exhibition season, opened last Thursday with Denver beating Atlanta, 14-10, in the Hall of Fame Game and elating Broncos bettors who laid -2.5 or so.

“Under” the total of 34 or 34.5 was never seriously threatened. A slew of matchups in Week 1 of the exhibition, er, preseason games, kicks off Thursday and continues Friday and Saturday. KLAS-TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, will pre-empt its schedule to telecast the Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers game on Saturday. (The 49ers are -3.5.)

If you crave even information, pick a website and devour all the information you need. Vegas Insider offers posts previewing conferences, preseason rankings and best bets in the AFC and the NFC.

But while football season is weeks away, we turned our attention on Thursday to WNBA action. We were curious how the Las Vegas Aces, which seemed to be doing fine minus A’ja Wilson, would fare against the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Aces, who were +1, were were very much in the game until the fourth quarter, in which they scored eight points, and the two teams combined for a total of 21 points. In addition to it being a fairly easy cover for the Sparks, 76-68, the total came in “under” 154.5, with an obvious assist from that 21-point fourth quarter.

By Saturday, if you were ready to make a bet or put down a parlay, you had the usual array of choices — Major League baseball including a Red Sox-Yankees double-header, Minor League baseball, the WNBA, the Canadian Football League, MLS and the German Supercup soccer to mention just a few.

We could have easily been convinced to take a stab the Las Vegas Aviators at home at the Las Vegas Ballpark. The game-time temperature was above average at about 108 and the price on the Aviators was also high at -175 vs. the Oklahoma City Dodgers.

However, you could find the Aviators on the run line at +105. The total was 15.5 with “over” priced at -120 at Station properties.

By the time the temperature had cooled to around 100 degrees and 9,795 fans had clicked through the turnstiles, the Aviators had easily put away the Dodgers, 10-5.

The Las Vegas Aces were also in action Saturday. Laying 4.5 points on the road vs. the Dallas Wings, the Aces came away with a win, 75-70, and a cover by the narrowest of margins. The total was a push at 145.

So what’s next?

— The Oklahoma City Dodgers-Las Vegas Aviators series concludes Monday. Expect the Aviators to continue to be heavy favorites.

— In golf, playoffs for the 2019-20 FedEx Cup start Thursday. According to Vegas Insider, the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has Brad Koepka as the betting favorite heading into the first event while Rory McIlroy has 5-1 odds.

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